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Project One: Form & Function

This project examines the relationship of form and function in architectural design. 

It encourages truth, whatever the position the designer takes, and promotes the arbitrary aesthetic of "functional" beauty.  

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The criteria of this project is to develop a bridge that spans one hundred ninety feet across a waterway that inhabits an endangered snail. No piles or structure of any type may touch the water and a section of the bridge must open up to allow for an object forty feet tall by thirty feet wide to pass through. The project starts with preliminary design-work and morphs to allow a mechanism system to move the section of bridge. 

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Prototype Bridges

My bridge prototypes were: The Tappen Zee Bridge in New York City; the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia; and the Pont de Normandie Cable-Stayed Bridge in Northern France.

Inspirations

The inspirations I used for my movement analogies are: a caulking gun, which uses a spring-loaded track system to dispense caulk; a stick of deodorant, which uses and turning gear to raise the stick; and a double-hinged umbrella, which operates with a piston mechanism and hinges to open and close the device. 

3x3 Conceptual Table
Preliminary Design 1

The first design focused around having the section raised and lowered on a gear-assisted track system, similar to the mechanics found in the caulking gun but re-positioned vertically, like the deodorant stick. A motored gear attached to a pulley system would power the section up and out of the way of the boat in the waterway. This was the option I chose to develop into my final design.  

Preliminary Design 2

My second preliminary design focused around transforming the arch bridge into two different mechanism designs. The first revolved around the idea of having a rocking like curved steel member attached to the roadbed. When a gear-assisted mechanism engages the section, the curved part would be eased back into a guided track system, thus raising the roadbed. This system would incorporate the double-hinge mechanism of the umbrella as well. 

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Final Design

Bridge Closed

Bridge Open

Slide Show of Elevations 

Front Elevation

Track and Gear System

Here, I removed the structure so the mechanics are visible. The counterweight drops and the tension goes through the pulley system, thus pulling the gears attached to the road section up and out of the way of the boat. 

Preliminary Transformation
Animation
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